Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA29841 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 10 Jan 2001 13:52:48 GMT Message-ID: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230010D1A0D@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: DNA Culture .... Trivia? Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 14:45:10 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Vincent:
There is one question of the polytheism/monotheism debate, however, and that
is why monotheism persists in industrialised nations. I can see some
superficial reasons why hunter gatherers would likely retain polytheism
(lots of animals to hunt, probably a lot of reverance for those animals etc.
etc.), and farmers to be monotheistic (heavy reliance on particular crops-
rice, maize etc., growth of large scale, unmoving communities, heavily
subject to the effects of weather distancing power into the sky, the
mountains etc.), but why does monotheism succeed so dramatically in
industrial societies?
Derek:
I think I'd answer that by asking: but has it? The last 250 years that
Europe has been industrialised have been the 250 years that have seen the
greatest decline in religion.
But aside from that, I should have added that of course correlation doesn't
tell us anything about causation, granted, but I do think that it does help
us to _rule out_ hypotheses of independence. What I mean is, the idea that
monotheism is just something that is easier to memorise, would suggest that
where monotheism arises, it should spread out virally from its point of
origin. Therefore what we'd see would be blotches of monotheism radiating
out from epicentres, covering a variety of peoples _independently_ of other
factors. Since this isn't the case, we can exclude the independence of
monotheism from other factors. That makes it unlikely that it is simply a
thought contagion - there must be a selective (dis)advantage at work.
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